


Necessities

by niawen



Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Drabble, Short & Sweet, Totally Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-14 19:21:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28800504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/niawen/pseuds/niawen
Summary: With Asra bouncing to the Magical Realms to cope with the revival and subsequent memory wipe of his apprentice, Muriel fulfills the request that he check in on them from time to time.  Set very early in the Apprentice's rehabilitation.Written as a Prompt Battle reward for @_bon_amie_ on instagram!
Kudos: 16





	Necessities

Even if Muriel was starting to dread going to the magic shop these days, it was effectively impossible for him to refuse a request from Asra, especially given what he was going through. His apprentice was successfully revived, though Muriel had his doubts that what Asra had done was the right choice. His misgivings hadn’t really been misplaced either. The apprentice was alive again but with no memory and barely able to do basic tasks like walk or talk.

Well, that was maybe a couple seasons ago. They’re much more mobile now but they still needed to be looked after. Which was what he was doing out in the Vesuvian city center in the first place with a bag of basic necessities held under his tense arm. He pulled his cowl low, the light rain at least keeping an excess of people off most of the cobbled streets. Though even the people forced to complete whatever errands now were an excess in his mind. He clenched his jaw a little tighter and continued moving.

The shop was quiet when he came around the corner, its large front window was dark and the purple curtains drawn tight. Asra was gone and would be for at least a week- though his forays into the magical realms were getting longer and longer. He frowned even more tightly. Asra’s decision had been steep and Muriel couldn’t honestly say he would have done the same. The Apprentice was barely functioning, and frankly had been as helpless as a newborn and now entirely dependent on Asra’s ability and willingness to care for them even as a full year of rehabilitation was closing in on them… Asra had expected his lover back and instead he got a blank slate. An empty vessel. 

Muriel knew there was no deliberation either. Asra took to the task with grim acceptance. It wasn’t that he found it onerous but it was obvious that this outcome to his ritual had done more than taken half his soul, it had broken his heart. Seeing his lover revived only to have to start over from square one was soul crushing. Frankly it was  _ too _ much, which was why he kept escaping to the magical realms to have grief breakdowns in private. Which was why  _ Muriel  _ couldn’t really refuse him when he stoically asked him to make sure they were doing okay for a few days.

Muriel’s bitterness concerning the situation was mostly born from simply seeing Asra in pain. He’d had misgivings from the start, he’d warned Asra but the downward spiral of grief and desperation had blinded his friend and Asra had made his choice to perform the ritual just as Asra had made his choice to help the apprentice (with the small hope that maybe they would come back to themselves in time). And even though the whole ordeal inspired somewhat negative feelings in Muriel, he’d made his decision too: to support his closest friend any way he really could and he supposed if that meant checking in on the apprentice then so be it…

These meetings were awkward at best and sometimes borderline traumatic at worse. Muriel’s curse was a benefit, most of the time, but sometimes it was a problem. The mild inconveniences were that he had to constantly re-explain who he was and what he was doing, enduring the mistrustful stares of neighbors as he showed up at the shop maybe one or two times a week while Asra was gone. If he could get away with just leaving a bag of groceries on the ground, he did, knocking and hastily retreating back to the shadows, lingering long enough to see that the door was answered, the mildly confused expression on the apprentice’s face, and their eventual acceptance a moment later as they picked it up and to take inside.

But sometimes that wasn’t enough… Sometimes they wouldn’t answer the door and he’d have to decide how best to proceed without getting the guard called on him for looking like an extremely threatening creep trying to peer in through the windows. The shop had a back door and he slunk in there if he had to have access- Asra’s spellwork ensured he was permitted to cross the threshold without issue but of course that didn’t mean that the apprentice inside wouldn’t panic at the sight of him. Muriel wasn’t bad at being stealthy if necessity demanded but he felt guilty looming in the shadows to spy on someone so oblivious, even if their primary caretaker begged him to do it. But they really did need the supervision as they slowly regained their autonomy after (what Muriel considered) a disastrous if ultimately successful revival.

So he did the same today, coming around from the side street so he could check the perimeter of the shop at a respectable distance without gaining undue scrutiny. The charms were all in place and the enchantments were still active. He frowned, craning to look in through the back window and then peering into the second story for signs of movement. There was none so he moved on to the front. At the step he lowered the sack of necessities and paused for a second, unable to stop himself from looking over his shoulder at the deserted street. It was, thankfully, empty and he knocked on the door, quickly pivoting to a shadowed corner across the way, where he waited for them to answer.

He told himself he was only waiting so that he could confirm to Asra that he’d done as asked but after a few ponderously long moments, he was starting to feel thankful he stayed. After a minute or two of suspicious silence and tension growing steadily in his chest, he abandoned his hiding spot and moved impatiently to the back door, feeling the enchantment waver for a second before allowing him to turn the knob and let himself in. 

It was silent. And so was he, straining to hear any signs that would give away the apprentice’s presence but after a long moment, there was still nothing. He even crept up the stairs to see if they were asleep or passed out on the floor or otherwise indisposed. If he was expecting signs of a struggle or a break in, he didn’t find any and, starting to panic in earnest, he swiftly moved back downstairs and out the door, scanning the street for any hint of where his charge might have gone.

Asra would never forgive him, he thought anxiously as his wide pace took him through the backstreets of the center city, eyes darting through the smattering of people in a steadily rising panic. He turned swiftly around the corner and froze in his tracks at the sight of a familiar figure down the thoroughfare to his right. It was… uncomfortably crowded but he took a steadying breath and waded through the small sea of people crowding around the market stalls.

In front of a baker’s shop, the Apprentice stood, hands clasped nervously in front of them as they watched a thick-set, friendly-faced baker trade rolls and loaves for coins and earnest thanks. Whatever he was selling was popular, that was for certain, as Muriel noted with a rise of dread that the density of the crowd increased markedly as he got waded closer. He pulled up his cowl and sidled closer to the figure radiating uncertainty, though he was very careful not to accidentally touch them for fear of scaring them… Their mental faculties were returning, certainly, but Muriel was worried about accidentally frightening them for a number of reasons- least of which were unneeded trauma or panic attacks in the middle of a crowded street at being confronted by a seemingly threatening stranger.

Instead he remained a respectable distance away and cleared his throat somewhat gently. “Does Asra know you’re here?” he asked as gently as he could. Of course, he already knew the answer to that but he felt it was important to let them know he knew the magician.

They jumped and looked up to his shadowed face, wary at first but then it left them after he watched them in silence for a moment. It was a long moment and Muriel worried what the best way to handle this ultimately was before the Apprentice wrung their hands and shook their head guiltily. Well, they didn’t run screaming from him, that was a start, he sighed internally. “Do you know the way back to the shop,” he asked, his voice gentle and quiet but uncharacteristically confident given his preference for being reclusive. But he knew that they might need his help and, given he didn’t have a very clear idea what they were capable of at the moment, he decided to play it slow and safe.

After a minute of obvious internal debate they nodded slowly, though their eyes darted to the market stall full of bread and Muriel raised an eyebrow, following the obviously yearning look. 

“Hungry?”

They nodded. Quicker this time.

He reached into a pouch at his belt and pulled out two dented coins, holding them out at arm’s reach for the apprentice but they didn’t move, looking instead between them and back to the vendor with a kind of blank confusion. He pursed his lips, sympathy mingling with just a flicker of exasperation (more at the situation in general than the Apprentice, they certainly didn’t ask to be revived at the cost of all their memories). He nodded and turned, leaning in over the cart. His size made him immediately noticeable and he pointed at a roundish, glazed pastry and traded the coins for it when the baker handed it to him. 

He turned back to the apprentice and passed the small pumpkin bread to them and- after a second of wide eyed curiosity that Muriel couldn’t help but snort quietly at- promptly took a huge bite.

The way back to the shop was uneventful- thank the gods- and it wasn’t long before Muriel was standing across the street from it, the bag of groceries he’d placed on the stoop still undisturbed. “Brought you food,” he explained somewhat gruffly. For a second, he almost mentioned that he’d make another check in by the end of the week… but then remembered that it would have been an ultimately meaningless endeavor. Glad to be back home where they obviously felt the safest, the apprentice didn’t need any further encouragement and they trotted across the way towards the groceries, the last of the pumpkin bread still stuffed in their mouth.

He took a step backwards into the alley, shadowed between two buildings, then another. By the time the Apprentice turned around he was out of sight and he was able to see the artificial blankness settle over them for a second while they forgot what they had turned around for. Silently, he watched them blink in confusion before finally bending down to pick up the groceries and bring them inside. He exhaled quietly through his nose and shook his head, hoping Asra came back soon. 


End file.
